Papers in English

During human history, physical existence of the nation was always related to various risks regarding the amount of population. These risks have two faces: either small or a big number of population, however, the solution was always the one to control the population birth and “construct” society with optional characteristics from the quantitative and qualitative point of view. In order to keep optional existence, different cultures developed various methods for population control and one of them is abortion. According to the needs of the society, some cultures give preference to one of the sexes, and usually, that are male children who are given the right to live, that is what we nowadays call sex-selective abortions: the practice of terminating the pregnancy because of the child’s sex.

Nowadays, when online media has gained its unique place in communicative field, it is getting more and more important to study what kind of information is being spread through online media. The importance of studying informational flows spread by online media is getting more significance in case when there is no any other main source of communication, because in that case online media plays the main role of constructing and reproducing certain images, which form not only perception but also a potential reaction toward a certain object.

Current political situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan doesn’t give opportunity for a formation of direct communications in a larger scale between the two states and nations, still certain type of communication takes place in online media and thus it becomes one of the main sources of information about opposite side. That is why it is important to understand what kind of image is being is created by Azerbaijanian online media. (more…)

In most cases we talk about Armenians, who left their country, but this time I will speak about Hungarians who forced to live here in this beautiful countryside. My subjects are the hundred thousands of people, who became prisoners during and after the Second World War.

During my investigation, I found Hungarian prisoners in three camps in the Caucasian region, at Yerevan, Grozny and near Ganja, but it is sure, that they worked in other locations as well. The majority didn’t speak Russian, even less chance for Armenian, Azeri or Georgian, that’s one of the reasons why they worked mostly in simple public works. The soviets had ruined the oil pipes when the Germans attacked in 1941, reopening them was a simple and suitable work for them. Another concrete example can be the building of the Opera House in Yerevan, where the Hungarian prisoners also took their part in the work. Renovating roads, bridges, railways and building new public facilities were typical jobs. About 2-3% of the prisoners were able to do their old professions in workshops. The complete number of Hungarians in the Caucasian camps couldn’t be more than a few hundreds. I have found an official file, in this, 92 Hungarian military officers were required for the camp at Yerevan in June 1945.[1]

The military actions in 1988-1994 between Armenians and Azerbaijani lead to the transformation of perceptions between two nations and highlited the deconstructive communication for the long-term outcomes. The war was conditioned by the fact that the territory of Arsakh, which was known as Nagorno Karabakh wanted to become independent from Azerbaijan (being an independent state of Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan)and join Armenia, since most of its population were Armenians. The outcomes for the war, especially socio-psychological ones, are promoting a situation, where the perceptions of the contradicting side are taking negative form at the public level.In parallel the Nagorno Karabakh[1] problem was raised, and at the same time Turkey’s tied its relations withAzerbaijan. And the good relationship at the level of ethnic groups led to the processing of enemy image. Turkey closed the border with Armenia, stating that it will open the border after Nagorno Karabakh conflict is solved. This is especially important to mention at the unconsciousness level, since Armenians identify OttomanEmpire and YoungTurks to be guilty of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and since up until now current Turkis government does not recognize the Genocide, the enemy image is being transformed from generation to generation. (more…)

Psychological domain of the conflict is one of the most important aspects of the conflicts as it conducts the way of conflict development from constructive into destructive. A conflict is considered to be either constructive or destructive by taking account its outcome for the sides involved in the conflict and for the social system in general. But before touching upon the theme of the psychological processes during the conflict we should understand what the conflict is in general and what kind of main elements there are in its structure.

There are a number of scientific approaches of understanding the concept of Genocide. Some of them may spread a light on understanding the impact of Genocide on the identity of both the victim and the murderer. For instance among such approaches are AleidaAssmann’s discussions of collective memory, Gregory H. Stanton’s suggestions of the genocidal process, the concept of cultural trauma of Jeffrey Alexander, etc. The Armenian Genocide is not an exception. Nevertheless the Armenian Genocide has its own features and characteristics. Moreover it is distinguished from other cases by its results and effects on the society. To be precise we come across to a complicated phenomenon which is typical for the Armenian case. On the one hand it has created dual Armenian identity via Diaspora[1]. On the other hand within the memory of the Genocide it has constructed the images of victim and the image of enemy. Both of these factors are highly connected to nationalism and nationalistic behavior.

The social protests are the integral part of current political life. The latter exists both in the developed countries with so called democratic systems and in the nations in transit. In this work by saying “democracy” or “democratic” we are based on the indicators of Freedom House.

Generally the social movements can be considered as the expressions of the freedom of speech and assembly. Some scholars adhere to believe that the social movements are the component of civil society. The latter is considered to be one of the most decisive parts of democratic state. From this perspective the social protests may have some democratic implications to the extent that it relates to the expressions of the freedoms. However, from the other side they arise as a result of social dissatisfaction towards some state or non state decisions or attitudes. That is why we advance the following argument: the social movements are the illustrations of lack of democracy from one side and expressions of democratic freedoms from another side. So, they cannot be judged as pure demonstrations of freedoms. The objective of the paper is to identify that ambiguity from the perspectives of the theories and to support the theoretical interpretations with practical cases from Armenian reality.

The main objective of my research is to answer the question how collective memory and local identity intertwine in the Diaspora as well as the home country of the Armenians. What dividing lines can be observed? And can we even assume that there exists a unified Armenian collective memory? Answering this question is all the more interesting because it can resolve universal problems of Diaspora theory and sociology, for which the example of the Armenians is ideal, since they first appeared in various European and Asian regions as early as in the Middle Ages, taking along their identity and cultural treasures, which would be reflected in various ways in the memory of both the Armenian and the local communities upon a synthesis with the individual local societies.

Phenomena of markets exist from the very beginning of human kind development, though from that time till now not only the perception of markets but also markets themselves have cardinallychanged. According to K. Polany in all epochs forerunning this one markets were only auxiliary tools for economic life [Polany 1944, 69]. (more…)

When dealing with the information from online sources the main statements that we come across is that they do not correspond the reality. This is being proved by the content analysis and various comparison studies. But there’s one point, which is not being considered, and that’s the reason why people are tend to believe the online sources. According to Berger and Luckmann mass media do not reflect the world in any empirical sense, but instead help construct and maintain it by re-presenting particular meanings and understandings of “reality”[1].